Tangohia mai te Taura - Take This Rope: Exploring Māori Documentary-Making Approaches to Elevate Whānau Narratives

Abstract

Tangohia mai te taura (Take This Rope) was a practice-led research project that delved into whānau (family), identity, belonging, whenua (land) and historical injustice. The thesis study involved the conceptual and physical creation of a documentary of installed photographs, waiata (songs), whakatauākī (proverbs), poetry and filmed mōteatea (laments) that artistically considered connections between Mokomoko, whenua and whānau. In so doing, the thesis artistically explored the potentials of documentary making in relation to form, space and Kaupapa Māori (Māori research approaches). The study employed a pūrākau methodology activated through the orienting principles of manuhiri, wero, whaikōrero, and karakia. The significance of the study lay in its potential to rethink documentary inquiry as culturally located practice. As such, the thesis not only contributed to the corpus of research about Mokomoko, it also extended ways in which processes of indigenous documentary making might be approached and constituted in the pursuit of a communicative space that elevates whānau narratives and rhetorical assertion.

Related thesis artefact: Tangata Whenua Ōpōtiki https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gurj6sk06ai2mo9aq11iz/Tangata-Whenua_Opotiki.1.3.pdf?rlkey=fps1rgiakdop4u0gofnl1c5im&e=3&st=ucktju65&dl=0